Getting an appropriate in-season program could be one of the best things you could do this year to maximise your performance and prevent those reoccurring injuries. This article should give you some practical insight into how to do that.

Cut the Crap

Time and energy is sparse in-season: you can’t afford to waste it. Your training has to be an efficient machine. Eliminate the crap. Prioritise the essentials.

Abide by the 80/20 rule when selecting your sessions; what 20% of your training contributes to 80% of your results?

A good in-season S&C program will include the majority of these components. Don’t let Instagram drown you in novel exercises; do the basics, do them well.

Build your Week around Game Day

Game day is king. Repeat that to yourself, it’s often neglected.

Many athletes are so desperate to improve their performance they often overdo the amount of training they do in-season, which has the opposite of the intended effect.

The best way to get good at your sport is to play your sport. Think about what your subjecting your body to: sharp cuts, rapid accelerations, powerful collisions. All stimulus’ to get faster, stronger and fitter.

With that in mind, when planning your training week start at game day and work back. Below is an example weekly turnaround which you can use for the common Tuesday/Thursday training schedule:

With this structure we’re looking to optimise the balance between keeping fresh for match-play and exposing the body to stressors to keep it fit.

For this reason, more fatiguing sessions are placed as early in the week as possible i.e. Game-day (+2) is a physically taxing day including the heavier lower-body work. To reduce the fatigue and feeling of “heavy legs” it’s kept as far away from game day as possible. While the power/speed session on Game-day (-2) gets athletes feeling sharp and primed for the weekend game.

Be an Adaptable Athlete

If you have a shorter turn-around between games you’ve got to prioritise based upon what physical stimulus that you won’t get from a game.

In general we get a high number of accelerations, decelerations and change-of-directions in sports training and games, but rarely open up >20m. Therefore, we need to a hit a few top-end sprints (30m) to maintain our ability to do so and prevent injury. Furthermore, players rarely expose themselves to the magnitude of forces needed to develop maximal strength.

Pro Athletes are Consistent

I’d highly recommend organising your training plan on a week by week basis. Sport is about consistency. Regularly performing at 90% of your physical best is better than aiming to achieve 110% during the finals, only to sit at a sluggish 70% during the regular season. You wouldn’t make the finals anyway.

Don’t try to create an overcomplicated peaking plan. Instead, look to tick these boxes on a weekly basis:

One upper-body and one lower-body session (or two full-body sessions)

One or two speed sessions later in the week (this can include sports training)

One explosive power session later in the week

Daily mobility and prehab

Sprinkle in conditioning if needed (1-2 x week) *unlikely to be needed in American Football

*Optional “armour building” session towards the end of the week

Common Questions

What Set and Rep Schemes should I use?

In-season you should look to at least maintain your strength levels. A template I’ve used successfully (a modified version Dan Bakers In-season Cycle):

Exercise

Wk 1

Wk 2

Wk 3

Wk 4

Wk 5

Wk 6

Upper-body (i.e. Bench)

70% x 8

70% x 8

70% x 8

70% x 8

75% x 6

80% x 5

75% x 6

82% x 5

88% x 3+

70% x 8

75% x 6

80% x 5

77% x 6

85% x 5

90% x 3+

85% x 5

90% x 3

95% x 2+

Lower-body (i.e. Squat)

If fatigued, 2 sets only.

60% x 8

60% x 8

65% x 8

60% x 8

70% x 6

75% x 5

70% x 6

78% x 5

82% x 3+

60% x 8

72% x 6

78% x 5

72% x 6

80% x 5

85% x 3

77% x 5

85% x 3

90% x 2+

Exercise

Wk 1

Wk 2

Wk 3

Wk 4

Wk 5

Wk 6

Explosive Power/Strength (i.e. Oly lift)

65% x 5

65% x 5

65% x 5

70% x 4

70% x 4

70% x 4

75% x 3

75% x 3

75% x 3

65% x 5

65% x 5

65% x 5

70% x 4

70% x 4

70% x 4

75% x 3

75% x 3

75% x 3

Hypertrophy Assistance

2-3 x 15 @ 65-70%

2-3 x 12 @ 65-70%

2-3 x 10 @ 65-70%

2-3 x 8 @ 75-80%

2-3 x 8 @ 75-80%

2-3 x 6 @ 75-80%

Nutrition and Bodyweight

Unless you are seriously overweight you should be in a calorie surplus or at least maintenance. Don’t look to drop significant amounts of weight in-season: your performance will suffer and your risk of injury will be through the roof. Physical contact has been shown to significantly increase your weekly calorie requirements.

Maintaining/building Muscle Mass In-season

Ensure your hitting strength sessions as stated above, stay in a calorie surplus and add in “pump sessions” when possible. Pump sessions are simply quick sessions (>30min), mostly consisting of isolation exercises for the upper-body that don’t cause a lot of fatigue. Include a high volume of lighter pulling exercises that keep the shoulders healthly i.e. pull-aparts, facepulls, rows, chins etc. You can sprinkle one or two of these into your lighter training weeks.

Dealing with Niggles

Keep plan B as close to plan A as possible. Sore shoulder? Floor press instead of bench press. Knees not dealing with running well? Do the exact same conditioning session on a bike. Injuries are a reality of contact sports; make sure you’re an adaptable athlete.

Reduce Soreness

If you’re constantly sore – your pre-season wasn’t good enough. You should have a work capacity high enough to deal with the demands of a season. That being said, make sure your getting 8hours sleep per night (have a lie in post-game day because you’ll probably be up until 1am…) and in a calorie surplus.

Recovery methods like foam rolling are just icing on the cake. If you already have the cake made you can use the 100-point recovery system on “recovery-days” to speed up the process; smply accumulate 100 points however you wish.

Managing your in-season training appropriately could be the single best thing you could do for your season.

I hope you can draw some practical takeaways from this article, please leave a like if you did and share it with friends who may find it useful.

Share this:

Post navigation

Leave a Reply

Connect with

I allow to create an account

When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.

Popular Posts

Have worked with coach Tyler of JT performance now for a few months, and has been without a doubt the single most productive S&C and performance coaching experience I have had in 10 years of competitive sport. Cannot recommend enough.

I’ve been working with Jack for around a year and a half and his experience and in-depth knowledge of strength and conditioning has really helped me excel in my sport and help me reach international level.

I’ve worked with Jack for about 8 months after he was one of the strength and conditioning coaches for my team. I had stopped playing the sport and was de-motivated until I started working with jack on my fitness and strength. His depth of knowledge, and his explanations for why I’m doing exercises is beyond anything I’ve experienced before….

Jack was probably the first guy that actually made me interested and understand myself more than ever, he is so detailed in this work that he wants you to gives as much time to explain yourself in what you want to improve so he can pin point the needs and get the best programme out for you, and he…

When I came out of hospital in March 2017 I was only able to walk with a frame. After a short course of physiotherapy I came to Jack to develop my overall health and fitness. I am a type 2 diabetic and wished to avoid the possibilty of complications. I find Jack very good at motivating me to exercise…

Have been training with Jack Tyler for the passed 3-5 years, have seen first hand how great of an athlete he is, as well as that as a coach from my own progress and from that of his experience inside and out of the gym. Would certainly recommend him as a coach in achieving you goals, as well as…

Over the years I’ve known Jack, I’ve had the pleasure of training with and being trained by him. With Jack as your coach you will learn new things about yourself. You will be pushed to new heights and will do things you didn’t think you could. Jack’s passion and his ability to teach makes him a fantastic coach. I…

Always provides great courses to follow which give me the results I want. I live and work in Germany and have a very busy work life, yet Jack always designs the courses well to fit as best as possible. Highly recommend working with him.